


between our two lives

by dorypop



Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: Adam Parrish Is Trying His Best, Adam Parrish Loves Ronan Lynch, College Student Adam Parrish, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, M/M, Matthew is mentioned, POV Ronan Lynch, Ronan Lynch Loves Adam Parrish, Ronan Lynch Visits Adam Parrish at College/University, Ronan Lynch/Adam Parrish Fluff, Ronan Swears, Sex is mentioned, adam parrish has issues with money, as well as Matthew's Pinterest account, he apparently loves Pinterest as much as I do, no single map has been used for the creation of this fic so i've got no idea where this is set, not graphic though, ronan mails packages to adam, ronan makes jam, well actually they go on a little vacation but it's near Adam's university
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-09
Updated: 2019-09-09
Packaged: 2020-10-13 11:23:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,441
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20581697
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dorypop/pseuds/dorypop
Summary: “I just meant— fuck. I’m just saying—we could have spent the weekend at your dorm. I don’t give a shit, I—”“Well, I do.”Shit. Adam was looking directly at him. His eyes looked cold in the warm light of the room, which meant he was hurt. Shit, shit and shit.“I mean,” Ronan started again, measuring his words. “I mean that I don’t mind wherever we go. We don’t have to do any fancy shit. It’s fine either way.”(Adam has issues with money and favors, Ronan has issues with saying two words without cursing, and they go to a fancy hotel)





	between our two lives

“No, I’ll pay,” Adam said, and that’s what started it all. Because they’d agreed beforehand that each of them would pay half and it had _obviously_ been Adam’s idea, so Ronan stood there for a moment, with his wallet still on his hand and his confusion tattooed in the curve of his eyebrows, while Adam produced several bills from his jeans’ pocket and handed them to the receptionist.

Adam’s tone had been nonchalant, but Ronan could see it was all very deliberate, as by the time he’d blinked next they were already in the hotel room, their small bags piled next to the door and Adam smiling next to the window, sure of his recent victory.

Ronan still didn’t know what this particular war was about, so he let it go and promptly came to kiss that smile away, because as nicely as smugness fitted Adam’s face, it wouldn’t do to let him let it go to his head.

But then, later, while Adam was in the shower he’d refused to share, because he hadn’t been able to make himself to move, Ronan kept mulling it over. He kept surfing channels from the admittedly very nice bed, but he couldn’t enjoy the cooking shows in peace because he wasn’t completely sure Adam could afford it.

“Parrish,” he said, when a very fluffy-looking Adam came back into the room, wrapped in a bathrobe.

Adam hummed and deposited his dirty shirt on the floor, next to his bag, before climbing to the bed.

“Missed me?” he asked, and it wasn’t fair because Ronan was trying to have a serious conversation here.

“Did you like— get a new job or something?”

Adam stopped the trail of kisses he was leaving on Ronan’s jaw to laugh quietly.

“What? No!” he snorted. “Where would I get the time? I don’t wanna go back to how my schedule was back in high school. Hopefully, ever.”

Ronan took a moment to appreciate how soft Adam’s just-washed hair was, while he tried to forget how painful it’d also been for him to helplessly witness the wonderful owner of such wonderful hair smile proudly when he bragged to him that he’d managed to scrape four hours of sleep the previous night.

“Okay. Good. Wouldn’t wanna go through your fucking secretary to speak to you.”

Adam snorted again. His breathing tickled against Ronan’s neck.

“Yeah. Why do you ask, though?”

Ronan sighed, because there was no way to put this that wouldn’t lead to a fight. He considered the odds of Adam letting him drop it when he’d already asked about this and he figured it was nearly impossible, so to hell with it.

“We didn’t have to come here, you know?”

“What?”

Adam left Ronan’s arms to properly look at him and Ronan felt immediately colder.

“I just meant— fuck. I’m just saying—we could have spent the weekend at your dorm. I don’t give a shit, I—”

“Well, _I_ do.”

Shit. Adam was looking directly at him. His eyes looked cold in the warm light of the room, which meant he was hurt. Shit, shit and shit.

“I mean,” Ronan started again, measuring his words. “I mean that I don’t _mind_ wherever we go. We don’t have to do any fancy shit. It’s fine either way.”

“I can afford this, Lynch.”

“Okay.”

“I really can. You don’t get a say in how I spend my money. And I wanted to get away from my dorm, that was the whole point of this.” Adam stood up and started pacing in short and resolute steps.

“Okay.”

“You just gonna agree to whatever I say?”

“Course not, you dipshit.”

“So what is this really about?”

“Nothing, Parrish. Shit. Not a big deal. We agreed to pay half and half, that’s all.” He crossed his arms, because he felt stupidly vulnerable by having them rest empty at his sides.

“So I changed my mind. Not allowed that, either?”

Ronan snorted.

“Sure. You don’t wanna tell me, that’s fine, man. Whatever the fuck makes you happy.”

“Are we fighting right now?” Adam turned to look through the window. It seemed it had started raining outside.

“No. Are you?”

“Dunno,” Adam sighed.

“Come back to bed?”

“I’ll turn off the lights.” Adam’s barefoot steps on the wooden floor were now quiet and almost hesitant, but when he sat back on the ruffled covers he looked purposeful again. “I just wanted to give you something back. Like— you drive here all the time, and you send me presents, and you let me call you just to talk about stupid shit and— I wanted to tell you somehow that I care, too.”

Ronan cursed and opened his arms again, and didn’t start talking until Adam had positioned himself with his good ear right below Ronan’s mouth, so that he wouldn’t miss a fucking thing of what he wanted to say.

“You are a fucking idiot,” he enunciated, slowly, hugging Adam fiercely at the same time, in hopes his message came across. “Either you waste all your brilliant neurons on your fancy college shit, not leaving room to anything else, or you’re the fucking king of misleading and have deceived us all by bullshitting and making us believe you were some kind of genius.”

“I’ve never said—”

“Shut the fuck up. Shut up, because us the ordinary folk don’t have your ability to multitask, and I can’t give two pep talks at the same time.”

“Then don’t. I don’t need a pep talk.”

“I’m gonna have to ask Matthew for his Pinterest password for ideas on how to decorate your dorm room with fucking inspirational positivity quotes. That’s how _fucking_ _badly_ you need a pep talk.”

“Please don’t.”

“Then shut the fuck up and listen.”

“I didn’t know you knew what Pinterest is.”

“The point here,” he interrupted himself to softly bite Adam’s ear, to keep him on track, “is that you have somehow managed to forget that I _know_ you fucking care. I like sending you packages and I wish I was there to see your stupid face while you open them, but I like when you call me to tell me you got them.”

“I’ll record the unboxing next time,” Adam whispered, and then tried to wriggle away when Ronan chuckled just next to his ear.

“I know I sometimes don’t pick the phone up, but that doesn’t mean I don’t wanna talk to you when I do. It’s just— Sometimes it’s too much. But if you really need to talk, just keep fucking calling and I promise I’ll eventually pick up.”

It was a very weak promise, but Ronan felt Adam nod.

“I know.”

“So if you wanna sleep in a fancy hotel, that’s totally fine. Fuck, if you wanna sleep in a fancy hotel _with me_, that’s more than fine. That’s fucking awesome. But you don’t have to strain your budget to— what? Make it even with me, or whatever?”

Adam started squirming again and this time Ronan let him go.

“Hm. Yeah, sorry,” he said. He sounded like he was blushing. “It really sounded more logical in my head. I hope I’m not ruining our weekend together.”

Ronan stretched in the shadows to kiss that blush away.

“Still being a dipshit.”

“Sorry.”

Ronan kissed then Adam’s mouth because it seemed to be the only way to make him shut up.

“Don’t say sorry. I’m fucking brilliant at giving pep talks, I’m always looking for excuses to throw them to the world.”

“You can’t stand half the people in the world.”

“More for you. It’s a win-win,” Ronan grinned.

Adam smiled, but he still wasn’t relaxing completely.

“I—” he began, after a short pause. “I _do_ keep count. I know it’s silly and I know it shouldn’t matter, but I can’t really help it. It’s not like I have it written on a journal or anything, but I keep count of the favors everyone does to me, in my head.”

Ronan clenched his teeth, and then he forced himself to smile again.

“I can see why you do that,” he conceded. “But don’t you think you’re gonna get away with calling my packages of homemade jam a fucking favor.”

In a sudden movement, Ronan had Adam pinned to the bed. He hovered there for a second, trying to convey with his eyes what he knew Adam wasn’t ready yet to accept in words. He then proceeded to kiss every ticklish point he had discovered in Adam’s body, while filing a mental note to start filling the biggest box he could find with shitty mindfulness merchandising as soon as he came back to The Barns.

**Author's Note:**

> Title comes from a haiku by Bashō Matsuo (here translated by Sam Hamill):
> 
> Between our two lives  
there is also the life of  
the cherry blossom.
> 
> Comments and kudos highly appreciated, also on tumblr: hklnvgl.tumblr.com ♥


End file.
